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Re: Colony update here in Pa

I took 2 frames a week ago and it was great always is I have the best honey in the world.
It was slow getting going this spring but things are growing now all my nucs are looking great .Selling my first bee's this FRI a dream come true.
I have to check on my production hives to make sure they all have laying queens but every thing looks just great. I'm up to 25 hives and am shooting for 40 by AUG.
I think it's going to be a good year

Re: Colony update here in Pa

I pulled 4 bars (~2 gallons) last week the light honey with no bite is a favorite of the kids in my house. I've always attributed it "mostly" clover, but I'm not so sure now. My white clover really only started flowering well in the last 2 weeks and these bars of honey have been ripening for longer than that.

I've got 2 acres of lawn I'm not mowing because they are covered in white clover (and I'm lazy). I'm hoping the now empty bars will get filled with clover honey and I try out the difference.

The one swarm I captured about a month ago is queenless with a laying worker. On the other hand, my split is doing very well. I was going to do a newspaper combine, but I think I'll give the queen less hive a frame of brood and give it another chance.

Re: Colony update here in Pa

Originally Posted by Ennui

I've got 2 acres of lawn I'm not mowing because they are covered in white clover (and I'm lazy).

I envy you. Terms of my lease require my lawn to be scalped at least weekly. (And I mean scalped; almost shaved.) Clover bloomed last weekend and Sunday morning the bees discovered it. They had about two hours of care-free foraging before the mowing guy arrived to waste it all. Fortunately, some of the pasture around has clover growing in it.

Re: Colony update here in Pa

Originally Posted by Ennui

The one swarm I captured about a month ago is queenless with a laying worker. On the other hand, my split is doing very well. I was going to do a newspaper combine, but I think I'll give the queen less hive a frame of brood and give it another chance.

I'd at least give them a frame of open brood before combining. It'll go much better. Give them the open brood (including eggs) wait a week or at least 4 or so days, then combine. in my experience this goes much better.

Re: Colony update here in Pa

Did hive inspections yesterday in the brutal heat. If the weather cooperates I'm harvesting our first honey next week.
Once we sell enough honey I'm thinking about an Ultrabreeze suit. That's gotta be better than this heavy cotton monstrosity I'm wearing.

Re: Colony update here in Pa

I liked my Ultrabreeze jacket so much I also bought the full suit for the occasional mean hive. I can only imagine what it would be like to be wearing my cotton one when I make a splt this afternoon in the 90 plus degree heat.

Re: Colony update here in Pa

Looks like early Goldenrod blooming along the road sides here in NEPPA. We had an early goldenrod that bloomed up in Maine but the bees seemed to ignore it. I just came in from checking it up close and found no honeybees working it. There were bees of a smaller variety, a wasp and some flies but none of my bees. Of course, they just might be ignoring it in favor of the Dutch clover that is going strong. Does anyone know if this early goldenrod is of any importance to PA bees?

Re: Colony update here in Pa

I'm going to start feeding 1 to 1 sugar water to a couple of the colonies. They are building up slow. If they didn't have drawn comb from the start they'd really be behind.

Stopped by Forest Hill Woodworking yesterday to pick up supplies and they have the Mann Lake ventilated suits in stock. Looking forward to selling some honey so I can purchase an ultra breeze.http://foresthillbeesupply.com

Re: Colony update here in Pa

Last Monday, I ventured into a new direction and sold queens for the first time. A friend of a friend was in need, so I was able to provide 3 laying Italians. I charged $20 per marked queen. This past weekend I went into my nucs to graft larvae to replace them and found that all 3 nucs had already built queen cells.

The flow has pretty much ended in NE PA. There's still a little clover out there, but this coming weekend I'll be removing honey supers and extracting. I'll treat for mites and feed 1:1 at the same time. The goldenrod will be blooming in another few weeks.

Re: Colony update here in Pa

I never did see a big interest in the white clover though I could always find some bees working it. They're bringing in nectar and there is a lot of traffic flying out over the pastures so they are finding something other than clover it seems. Don't know what.

I'll be pulling some supers in a week or so. Got a surprisingly good production considering I started over with packages this spring. Can't beat starting with drawn comb.

Re: Colony update here in Pa

The summer goldenrod has very little to offer for the bees they will work something better If available. Has anyone tried buying an extractor from Brushy Mountain? I called them and asked for the 9 frame motorized and they said that they are on back order.

Re: Colony update here in Pa

Goldenrod is already blooming in Cressona. We are about 45 mins south of there and hope it makes an earlier appearance in our area this year.
I've had to give sugar water to three of our colonies in the last couple weeks.

Re: Colony update here in Pa

A new crop of a taller goldenrod has been blooming for over a week here. (Susquehanna County.) It's about 100 yards from my apiary. I checked it frequently last weekend to see if my bees were working but didn't see any bees other than bumbles on it. I snapped off a sprig of the blossoms and set it on top of a hive to see the reaction. Within minutes there were bees on it.

Haven't had a daylight minute to check this week. I hope they've found it by now. While I believe in feeding when necessary, I refuse to serve goldenrod plants to bees to lazy to fly across the yard.

Re: Colony update here in Pa

Last week in July my bees went idle. I could see them bearding up on the hives all day long. Two week later (~ Aug 9) they all became active again.

I have no idea what they are bringing in, but they've started working on something. I took good sniff around the hives last night and they don't have the old gym sock smell I think of with Goldenrod and the fall flow.

Re: Colony update here in Pa

My friends son wants a couple of hives in SE Pa. Any recommendations expectations? I told him to start with 5 and see how it goes. I heard in Maryland/Delaware
there is only a primary spring flow. Is that correct? Is fall feeding the norm and what should he expect for a typical lb crop per hive per year.
Cheers.